n light of the ever-rising costs of energy in the global market, energy consumers of all types seek to reduce the impact such costs to the greatest extent possible. One popular manner of doing so is the use of vehicles that do not rely solely (and in some cases, at all) upon petroleum products as a source of energy. Many such vehicles have been developed that rely exclusively or in large part on batteries that must be recharged from a source of electrical power external to the vehicle. Such vehicles are referred to hereinafter simply as “electric vehicles,” it being understood that this term refers to any vehicle requiring an external supply of electrical power to charge the vehicle for normal use. By way of example and without limitation, the term “electric vehicle” therefore refers to vehicles whose primary source of power is electrical batteries, as well as vehicles that have other sources of power (e.g., biofuel, fuel cells, natural gas, compressed air, and the like) in addition to or in lieu of electrical batteries, but that are designed to be supplied with electrical power from an external source to improve efficient operation of the vehicle.
Unfortunately, significant limitations exist to the widespread utilization of electric vehicles. For example, most households have a small number of appliances, devices, and systems that require a significant draw of electrical power from a power supplier. The introduction of an electrical vehicle as another daily draw of electric power for a household would place unprecedented strain on community power systems, many of which are already incapable of meeting peak demands. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that in some cases, the daily draw of electric power to charge the battery of an electric vehicle may be the highest of a household.
Simply put, existing power infrastructure for most communities is incapable of meeting the demand that widespread use of rechargeable electric vehicles would place on the infrastructure. Until electrical power distribution infrastructure is updated to meet this demand (and even after such a time), improvements in energy distribution and utilization for charging electric vehicle batteries are welcome in the art.